Doctor Behn is a son of Fred and Ernstina (Scheurer) Behn, both of whom were natives of Germany and were brought to America, his father at the age of eight years and his mother at five. The paternal grandparents were Martin and Mary Behn, who are buried in the Oakwoods Cemetery of Chicago. The maternal grandparents were Charles and Marie Scheurer, who are buried in the Oak Hill Cemetery at Hammond. Fred Behn was educated in Chicago and for twenty-five or thirty years was in the hotel business. He is a retired resident of Gary. His wife was very active in fraternal work, in the Eastern Star and Rebekahs, was chaplain of the Rebekah Lodge of Hammond, and while saying prayers in the lodge she was stricken with heart disease and died a few hours later, October 20, 1920. She is buried in the Oak Hill Cemetery at Hammond, Indiana. Of her three children the only daughter, Emily, died January 20, 1925, wife of Fred C. Holifield. Walter Martin Behn has a brother, Elmer August Behn, who is a pharmacist at 749 Broadway, Gary. He married Miss Bernice Zonsa, of Gary, and they have one son, Norman Frederick.
Walter Martin Behn was graduated from the Emerson High School of Gary in 1912. Following this came four years of work as an employee of the Illinois Steel Company. His first year of pre-medical training was received in the Valparaiso University. In 1919 he graduated Bachelor of Science from the University of Chicago and then entered its affiliated school of medicine, Rush Medical College, where he took his M. D. degree in 1923 . He had a year of further training and experience as an interne in the Illinois Central Hospital of Chicago.
On April 4, 1924, Doctor Behn opened his office in Gary, at 749 Broadway. This is a prominent medical center of Gary, the group of physicians and surgeons having their quarters at the same number including Dr. A. A. Watts, Dr. J. B. Burcham, Dr. Morris Marcus, Doctor Edward Gaebe, and it was also the headquarters of the late Dr. Theodore Kollmar. Doctor Behn has been abundantly prospered with the large practice that has come to him as a testimonial of his skill and efficiency. He is a member of the Lake County and Indiana State Medical Associations, in Masonry is affiliated with Whiting Lodge No. 613, A. F. and A. M., is a fellow of the American Medical Association and belongs to the Lincoln Hill Country Club. Recently he completed two years as coroner's physician of Lake County and on January 6, 1930, was appointed Gary health commissioner, and is also secretary of the city board of health. He is a Republican, and a member of the First Presbyterian Church.
Doctor Behn married in Chicago, March 17, 1923, Miss Freda Martina Nyland, daughter of John and Christine (Sogust) Nyland. Her father was born in Sweden and her mother in Germany, and they were children when their parents brought them to America and settled in Chicago. Her father was a carpenter and contractor, at first in Chicago and, later in Gary, where he died and is buried in the Oak Hill Cemetery. Her mother resides in Los Angeles. Mrs. Behn graduated from the Emerson High School of Gary in 1917, following which she was a student in Valparaiso University. She is a member of the First Presbyterian Church, the Eastern Star, the Delphians and the Woman's Club. Doctor and Mrs. Behn have one son, Walter Martin, Jr., born July 17, 1925, and one daughter, Betty Lou, born June 10, 1931.
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INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
HERBERT L. FORBES, county surveyor of Greene County, is a well qualified engineer who has had a long and successful experience in general engineering, mining engineering and in municipal engineering.
He was born in Greene County, son of L. S. and Ella (Lowder) Forbes, and a grandson of Rev. L. L. Forbes, who came from Pennsylvania and was a prominent minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the early days of Indiana. L. S. Forbes, who is a resident of Linton, is a truck farmer and has filled the office of deputy auditor. He and his wife had a family of six children: Elsie, wife of Thomas Huffnan and the mother of a son, Claude; Rowena, the wife of Harley Shepperd; Mrs. Mildred Lasley; Herbert L.; Julia, deceased, wife of Gomer James, and left a daughter, Doris; and Lelandis, who died in infancy.
Herbert L. Forbes attended the common schools of Bloomfield, Indiana, and after leaving school was employed in the engineering department of one of the mining companies at Linton for about two years. He also spent a year with the engineering department of the Gould Mining Company, with the Benson Coal Company and other mining organizations in Greene County. He was elected and served eight years as city engineer of Linton and also conducted a private office for his engineering practice. He was appointed deputy county surveyor, and did a great deal of work during the construction of hard surfaced highways in the county. In 1926 he was elected county surveyor and was reelected to that office in 1928.
Mr. Forbes is a member of the American Association of Engineers. He belongs to the Rotary Club and the Methodist Episcopal Church, and is a member of the Masonic fraternity.
Mr. Forbes married, October 14, 1912, Miss Vera Smith, daughter of John B. and Lula (Nelson) Smith. Her parents moved from Shawneetown, Illinois, to Greene County, Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Forbes had two children, Franklin, attending school, and Zebalee, who died at the age of three years.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
WILLIAM FRANK CARMACK has been a resident of Terre Haute since 1882, and his activities have brought him in close touch with political and public affairs of Vigo County, and for thirty-five years he has been one of the prominent attorneys of the Terre Haute bar.
He was born on a farm in Douglas County, Illinois, January 8, 1862, son of Isaac A. and Minerva (Howell) Carmack. His father was a native of Hawkins County, Tennessee, and his mother of Douglas County, Illinois. Mr. Carmack's paternal grandfather, Isaac Carmack, moved from Hawkins County to Quaker Point, Vermilion County, Indiana, in the early 1850s, settling on a farm. He was an abolitionist. The maternal grandfather, Howell settled in Coles County, Illinois, in 1842. He was a cattle dealer and took many herds of cattle overland to Milwaukee when Chicago was an Indian trading post. Isaac A. Carmack as a young man engaged in farming in Douglas County, Illinois. He was for twenty-five years active in the Republican party and became a personal friend of the late Joe Cannon of Danville.
William Frank Carmack grew up on a farm near Camargo, Illinois, and received a public school education. He was a young man of twenty when he came to Terre Haute. For ten years he was employed in the county offices at the Vigo County courthouse, being a clerk under County Assessor Frank Armstrong, under County Treasurer C. A. Ray, and was chief clerk for County Recorder Levi Hammerly. While in the recorder's office he studied law and was admitted to the bar, and has since been engaged in a steady practice, handling probate work almost exclusively.
Mr. Carmack has been active in the Methodist Episcopal Church, is a Republican and a member of the Knights of Pythias, and during the World war was secretary of the Vigo County branch of the Indiana Patriotic League.
He married Miss Sadie E. Hughes, of Terre Haute. Her father, Daniel Hughes, came from Wales, was a miller by trade and for many years was connected with the Southern Mills at Terre Haute. Mrs. Carmack has been active in the Woman's Department Club and the First Methodist Episcopal Church. Their only daughter, Edith Lucille, is the wife of Webb E. Beggs. Mr. Beggs is with the Hurd Pohlmann Company, Limited, at Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands. Mr. and Mrs. Beggs have two sons, Webb, Jr., and Edward Carmack ,.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
EDWIN L. RICKERT, president of the First National Bank of Connersville, resigned his post as superintendent of city schools to join this financial institution. Mr. Rickert has an enviable record both in education and banking, and is one of the progressive leaders of this prosperous Southern Indiana community. He was born in Columbiana County, Ohio, son of Allen and Sarah (Lehman) Rickert. His father was a native of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and his mother was also born in Columbiana County. From the farm where Edwin L. Rickert was born his parents two years later moved to Mahoning County and are now living at North Lima in that county. His father was born in 1848 and his mother in 1850.
Edwin L. Rickert was educated in public schools and was graduated A. B. from Wooster College of Ohio in 1901. His general and specialized education was continued in Harvard University, the University of California , University of Chicago, and his Master of Arts degree was given him at Columbia University in New York. He began teaching at the age of nineteen, at first in district schools, then as principal of village schools. He was principal of the Briar Hill and Myrtle Avenue schools in Youngstown, Ohio, and in 1907 went west to Maquoketa, Iowa, where he was superintendent of schools five and a half years.
Mr. Rickert has been a resident of Connersville since August 1, 1912, when he took up his duties as superintendent of schools. On July 1, 1920, he resigned that office to become cashier of the First National Bank, and since January, 1923, has been president. The First National Bank of Connersville is an institution with over two million dollars in resources, one of the strongest banks in the southern part of the state.
Mr. Rickert married, July 31, 1912, Miss Grace Weimer, who was born in Stark County, Ohio, daughter of Frank and Catherine (Crise) Weimer. Her parents were natives of Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Rickert's three children are Edwin W., George Allen and Mary Grace. Mr. Rickert is an elder in the Presbyterian Church. Since 1928 he has been president of the board of trustees of the Connersville public schools. He is a Republican, is a member of the National Education Association, and, since August, 1925, has been chairman of the Better Connersville Committee. This organization functions as a Chamber of Commerce and among other accomplishments has been instrumental in securing the location at Connersville of the assembly plant of the Auburn Automobile Company. Mr. Rickert is a former president of the Kiwanis Club.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
HON. JAMES A. COLLINS. Among the members of the bench and bar of Indiana, few are held in greater esteem and respect than Hon. James A. Collins, former judge of the Criminal Court of Marion County. In 1909 he was elected to the bench and in 1914 became the incumbent of judge of the Criminal Court of Marion County, having the distinction of being the only person ever elected to serve a fourth term since the establishment of the court in 1867.
Judge Collins was born October 12, 1870, at Arlington, Massachusetts, and is a son of Joseph and Jane (LaVelle) Collins. His father, a native of Birkenhead, Cheshire County, England, came to the United States in young manhood, and during the war between the states served in the Union army as a private in Company K, Eleventh Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. He married Jane LaVelle, who was born in Ireland, of French-Huguenot ancestry, and they resided the rest of their lives in Massachusetts, where Joseph Collins died in 1887.
After graduating from the Washington Grammar School, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, James A. Collins attended Cambridge Latin School for one year, but the death of his father necessitated his return home, and he secured employment with Joel Goldthwait & Company, of Boston, and remained with that concern for three years or until becoming assistant secretary of the Young Men's Christian Association at Springfield, Massachusetts. While in this position he prepared for a general secretaryship and was later called to serve as secretary at Matteawan, New York. From that town he was called to Lyons, New York, as the general secretary of the association there, but resigned to take up the study of law with the Hon. Charles H, Ray, a former classmate of Elihu Root at Hamilton College. In 1895 he married Lillie T. Knapp of Lyons, New York, and in that year took up his permanent residence at Indianapolis.
In 1898 Judge Collins entered the law office of Griffiths & Potts and upon the dissolution of that firm continued in the office of John L. Griffith, remaining with him for a period of five years. In 1899 he received the appointment as deputy prosecuting attorney under Edwin B. Pugh, and upon the election of John C. Ruckelshaus, two years later, as prosecuting attorney, was appointed deputy prosecutor in the Police Court, serving in that capacity for two years. On leaving the Police Court Judge Collins entered upon the general practice of his profession, forming a partnership with the late Charles E. Averill, under the firm name of Averill & Collins. This connection continued until Judge Collins was elected judge of the City Court of Indianapolis in 1909, and as judge of this court he established a system of adult probation that attracted attention throughout the country, and inaugurated the system for the collection of money fines on installments.
In 1914 Judge Collins was elected judge of the Criminal Court of Marion County and was reelected in 1918. 1922 and 1926, and served until January, 1931, since which time he has been engaged in the private practice of his profession. He was the fourteenth incumbent of this court since its establishment in 1867 and the only person who has ever been elected to serve four terms. During all the years that he presided over this court he maintained a system of adult probation similar to that which he established in the City Court. Judge Collins has been identified with the industrial, political and social development of Indianapolis. He was one of the founders and is a member of the board of directors of the Indiana Public Welfare Loan Association, and a member of the American, Indiana and Indianapolis Bar Associations. He is an honorary member of the Indianapolis Rotary Club and a member of the Columbia Club, Marion Club and McKinley Club, is a Scottish Rite Mason, and belongs to Murat Temple of the Mystic Shrine. During the war he contributed his services as a member of the legal advisory board of Marion County. Judge Collins has been a member of Saint Paul's Episcopal Church during all the years that he has resided in Indianapolis and is at this time a member of the vestry.
Judge and Mrs. Collins reside at 4811 Park Avenue and are the parents of two children: John H., a civil engineer of Indianapolis, who served with the Motor Transport Corps during the World war and saw action in France; and Miss Elizabeth L., of Indianapolis.
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INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
CHARLES J. CLAMME, president of the Union Trust Company of Hartford City, Blackford County, has been constructively influential in making this one of the staunch, efficient and important financial and fiduciary institutions of this part of his native state, besides which he is still actively engaged in the contracting business, in which he has gained much of leadership in road and bridge construction as well as general building operations, in Blackford and other counties.
Mr. Clamme was born on the parental home farm in Blackford County, Indiana, and the date of his nativity was March 18, 1878, he being a son of Pierre and Elizabeth (Spier) Clamme, whose children were eight in number. Pierre Clamme was born in the historic old province of Alsace-Lorraine, France, where he was reared and educated, and he was a young man when he came to Indiana, in 1862, he having become one of the substantial exponents of farm industry in Blackford County, where both he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives, secure in the high regard of all who knew them.
Charles J. Clamme was reared to the sturdy discipline of the old home farm and his early education was acquired in the public schools of Blackford County. He continued to be actively associated with farm enterprise until he was twenty-eight years of age, as an associate in the activities of the old home farm, and after that he became independently engaged in the same line of enterprise, with major attention given to the feeding and raising of live stock. In the meanwhile he had become identified also with contracting business, with which he has since continued his connection and of which he has become a prominent representative in this section of the state. He has done much road and bridge construction as a contractor, and his operations have extended into Ohio also, specially in connection with drainage projects. He erected two school buildings in Jackson Township, the high school building in York Township, likewise in Blackford County, and he erected the high school building at Selma, Delaware County. In his present alliance with farm enterprise he utilizes, about 800 acres of the valuable land of his native county and specializes in the raising of small grains, besides which he is associated with his two brothers in the ownership and control of a substantial business that is conducted under the title of Clamme Canning Company.
Mr. Clamme initiated his active connection with the banking business in the year 1925, when he liquidated the old Blackford County Bank at Hartford City, and he soon afterward began the promotion work that resulted in the organizing and incorporation of the Union Trust Company, which opened its establishment for business in July, 1927, the original corps of executive officers having been as follows: F. M. Forkner, president; F. L. Erwin, vice president; and Charles J. Clamme, secretary and treasurer. In 1930 Mr. Clamme was elected president of the corporation; L. C. Johnson, of Indianapolis, is vice -president; and Charles J. Clamme, Jr is secretary and treasurer, with Harold Markins as assistant secretary. The Union Trust Company was incorporated with a capital of $25,000, and its total resources in 1930 are $261,571. The bank has attractive and well-equipped modern offices in the Elks Building of Hartford City, and in addition to its regular executives it retains four clerical assistants.
Mr. Clamme has membership in the Indiana Bankers Association, his political allegiance is given to the Republican party, and he gave nine years of service as a member of the County Council of Blackford County. He is a charter member of the Rotary Club at Hartford City. He has been active in politics in his native county and formerly served as chairman of the Republican committee of Jackson Township.
Mr. Clamme married Miss Amanda Emshwiller, daughter of Jacob Emshwiller, of Blackford County, and of this union have been born six children. The religious faith of the family is that of the Lutheran Church. Charles J., Jr., who attended Capp University, a Lutheran institution, is now, as previously noted, secretary and treasurer of the Union Trust Company; Harold E. married Miss Dorothy Wise and they likewise reside at Hartford City; Miss Minnie remains at the parental home; Edna is the wife of Herbert Leach; and Howard L., and Roy are attending the public schools of their home city.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
JOHN WORTH KERN bears the full name of his honored father, who was long an influential and distinguished figure in Indiana public affairs as well as a member of the bar of his native state, and the son is well upholding the honors of the family name in Indianapolis, where he is established in the successful practice of law, is serving as United States commissioner, where he has been continuously in service as secretary of the Indianapolis Bar Association since 1924, and where he has made valued contribution to the educational work of his profession, he having been since 1927 a member of the faculty of the law department of the University of Indiana and also of Ben Harrison Law School.
Mr. Kern was born in Indianapolis, July 7, 1900, and is a son of John Worth Kern and Araminta (Cooper) Kern, the former of whom was born in Howard County, this state, and the latter at Burlington, Carroll County. The late John Worth Kern, Sr., left a distinct and worthy impress upon the history of his native state, and so ample and varied are existent records of his career that in this review it is unnecessary to enter detailed statements concerning his life history. It may be said, however, that he was long one of the prominent members of the Indiana bar, that he served as official reporter of the Indiana Supreme Court, was twice the Democratic nominee for the office of governor of Indiana, that he had served as a member of the State Senate, that he was a candidate of his party in 1908 for vice president of the United States, and that he served as United States senator from Indiana from 1911 until his death, which occurred in 1917. His widow now maintains her home at 1836 North Pennsylvania Street, Indianapolis.
The Indiana public schools constituted the medium through which John W. Kern, Jr., acquired his preliminary education. He thereafter continued his studies in the Brooks Preparatory School, and his final academic course was pursued in fine old Washington and Lee University, in Virginia, from which he received his degree of Bachelor of Arts. He thereafter completed a course in the law department of historic Harvard University, from which duly gained his degree of Bachelor of Laws. In 1923 Mr. Kern became associated in practice with the Indianapolis law firm whose principals were Karmer Bess and George L. Denny, and this alliance he severed one year later, since which time he has continued in active and successful general practice in an independent way, his law offices being established on the twelfth floor of the Merchants Bank Building, and his executive headquarters as United States commissioner being in the Federal Building of Indianapolis, he having been appointed to this office in 1923, by Judge A. B. Anderson, of the Federal District Court, and having been reappointed in 1928, by Judge Balzell. Like his father, Mr. Kern has been a loyal and well fortified advocate of the principles and policies of the Democratic party, by which he was nominated in 1924 for the office of reporter of the Indiana Supreme Court. Mr. Kern has membership in the Indiana State Bar Association and the Indianapolis Bar Association, of which latter he has been, as previously noted, the secretary since 1924. He is affiliated with the Phi Gamma Delta and the Sigma Delta Kappa college fraternities, and he and his wife hold membership in the Presbyterian Church, their home being at 1529 Park Avenue.
The year of 1927 recorded the marriage of Mr. Kern to Miss Bernice Winn, daughter of Henry A. and Mabel (Long) Winn, of Indianapolis, and the one child of this union is John Worth Kern III, born May 25, 1928.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
AMOS WILLIAM BUTLER, A. M., LL. D., of Indianapolis, zoologist, sociologist, philanthropist, was born at Brookville, Franklin County, Indiana, October 1, 1860, and is a son of William Wallace and Hannah (Wright) Butler. In 1894 Doctor Butler was graduated from Indiana University with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and in 1900 he was given the degree of Master of Arts, while in 1922 it conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws, a similar degree having been conferred upon him by Hanover College in 1915. In 1896-97 Doctor Butler served as ornithologist of the Indiana Department of Geology and Resources; during the period of 1897-1923 he was secretary of the Indiana State Board of Charities; in 1909 he was a member of the White House Children's Conference; in 1905 he was lecturer on economics at Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana; in 1910 he was lecturer at the Chicago School of Philanthropy; and since 1920 he has served as lecturer on public charities at Indiana University. Doctor Butler was president of the National Conference of Charities and Correction in 1906-07, and in 1910 he served as chairman of the American committee on International Prison Congress, Washington, D. C., of which he was a vice president. As a member of the American Prison Association he served as its secretary in 1905-07 and as its president in 1909-10, he having been chairman of its executive committee since 1925. In 1925 he represented the United States as a delegate to the International Prison Congress held in London, England, of which international body he was a vice president. He has been president of the Indiana Conference of Charities and Correction. In the American Association for the Advancement of Science Doctor Butler was general secretary in 1891. He was secretary of its section on anthropology in 1886 and 1900, in which latter year he was retained also as vice president of this section. In the same organization he was secretary of the section on biology in 1889. He was the founder of the Indiana Academy of Science, of which he was secretary until 1893, he served the following year as its vice president and in 1895 as president. He was a founder of the American Anthropological Society, the American Association of Mammalogists, the Indiana Audubon Society, the Indiana Society of Mental Hygiene, and the International Committee on Mental Hygiene. Doctor Butler is a member of the American Ornithologists Union, was a delegate to the second Pan-American Scientific Congress, in 1915-16, and he has been since 1925 president of the Indiana Society for Mental Hygiene, the while he has been since 1915 secretary of the Indiana Committee on Mental Defectives. Doctor Butler has published more than 100 scientific papers. Among these is the book on the Birds of Indiana and another that bears the following title: Indiana – A Century of Progress. The Development of Public Charities and Corrections.
On the 2d of June, 1880, was solemnized the marriage of Doctor Butler to Miss Mary I. Reynolds, of Brookville, Indiana. Their home is at 52 Downey Avenue, Indianapolis. They are the parents of six children: Mrs. Carrie Hannah Watts, Mrs. Alice Kaylor (deceased), William Reynolds, Gwyn Foster, Mrs. Anne Harrison, and Hadley (deceased).
In college he was a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity, and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi honorary societies. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
MRS. KATE MILNER RABB, Indiana author, much of whose work has been in historical lines and who is a valued member of the India,na Historical Society, was born at Rockport, Indiana. She was married in 1891 to Mr. Albert Rabb, of Indianapolis, and is the mother of two children, Albert Livingston and Martha Charlotte, wife of W. H. Hobbs.
Mrs. Rabb has the Master of Arts degree from Indiana University. She began writing while in college, and has a host of readers who follow her comments on Indiana life through her special column in the Indianapolis Star known as A Hoosier Listening Post. Mrs. Rabb was appointed a member of the Indiana Historical Commission in 1923. She is a member of the Woman's Press Club of Indiana, the Contemporary Club, the Players Club, and is a Phi Beta Kappa and Kappa Alpha Theta. Her home is at. 1433 North Pennsylvania Street, Indianapolis.
Mrs. Rabb is author of National Epics, published in 1896; The Boer Boy, published in 1900; The Wit and Humor of America, published in 1907. She edited A Tour Through Indiana in 1840, this being the diary of John Parsons, of Petersburg, Virginia. She was also editor of Indiana Coverlets and Coverlet Weavers, which was published by the State Historical Society in 1928.
INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931
